Documentary Educational Resources - Geography / Africa / Ghana / All Films

Cool Running

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 16:12:20 GMT

In Accra, Ghana, por por (pronounced paw paw) is a unique music made from squeeze-bulb honk horns. Originally a fixture on colonial-era wooden lorries, these horns were subsequently repurposed by drivers in the township of La as musical instruments for union driver funerals.

Drawing from five years of research and work with the Drivers Union, filmmaker Steven Feld and photographer/oral historian Nii Yemo Nunu take readers into the stories of the drivers, their vehicles and the invention of por por music through photographs and text, including complementary historical essays and a classic black and white photograph section by German photographer Hannah Schreckenbach. Additionally, Nunu and Feld collected, transcribed, and translated twenty-five video interviews with elder drivers. These interviews formed the basis of The Story of Por Por, one of five films in Feld’s Jazz Cosmopolitanism series.

The deluxe, hardback edition of Cool Running features over two hundred captioned photographs, a CD titled Klebo! that features the La Drivers Union por por Group performing their songs, and a DVD with two documentary films: The Story of Por Por and M.V. Labadi.

“In all, this package offers a captivating introduction to por por and its cultural context of driving in Accra…On its own, it stands as a testament to the dynamic interplay of Ga drivers and musicians in La, including the ways in which foreign technologies become integrated into local cultural practice…will be a valuable resource for educators as well as scholars of Ghana, Africa, music, sound studies, technology and society, labor, and transportation.” - Paul Schauert, The Journal of African History

Praise for Jazz Cosmopolitanism:

“The chapters in which Feld listens and retells the stories of these mercurial musicians are compelling, and throw up original and profound material. Feld is brilliant at articulating the multiple overlapping narratives and experiences that both obfuscate and animate diasporic dialogues, and in that process his book attains its own world-historical significance.” – Tony Herrington, The Wire

“[A] vital statement about the infinitely nuanced nature of cultural exchange between Africa and America, and how our fullest understanding of jazz history might be furthered by enquiries like this.” – Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise

“Jazz Cosmopolitanism is a lively and important book, one that uses the vehicles of dialogue and sound to unearth the complex cultural and political dynamics that connect a group of urban Africans to the diaspora and wider world. It is a fun, invigorating, and worthwhile read that continues to resonate when finally put down. I highly recommend picking it up.” – Nate Plageman, Journal of African History

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A Por Por Funeral for Ashirifie

Tue, 9 Oct 2018 15:11:00 GMT

A Por Por Funeral for Ashirifie
Buy Now: $320.00

Por Por music (pronounced “paw paw”) is named for the honking sound of antique squeeze-bulb car horns, ubiquitous on the wooden lorries of Ghana's early transport history. After electric horns arrived in West Africa a union of bus and truck drivers in the Accra township of La kept the por por horn and invented a jazzy honking. The La drivers only perform Por Por at funerals of their fellow union transport workers.

In March 2008 the La Drivers Union Por Por Group lost one of its key members, Nelson Ashirifie Mensah. This film documents the funeral performed in his memory and discusses Por Por's relation to the New Orleans jazz funeral.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Prix Bartok, Jean Rouch Film Festival, 2010

Films in the Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra series:

Hallelujah! (60 min, 2009)

Accra Trane Station: The Music and Art of Nii Noi Nortey (60 min, 2009)

Includes the short film From Accra to Santa Fe (18 min, 2009)

A Por Por Funeral for Ashirifie (60 min, 2009)

The Story of Por-Por (60 min, 2013)

Includes the short film M.V. Labadi (20 min, 2013)

J.C. Abbey, Ghana's Puppeteer (55 min, 2016)

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J.C. Abbey

Tue, 9 Oct 2018 15:11:00 GMT

J.C. Abbey
Buy Now: $320.00

This film documents an exceptional fifty-year artistic career, from Accra's streets to Ghana's villages to international TV. In fifteen delightful puppet shows, Mr. Abbey is joined by musicians Nii Noi Nortey and NiiOtoo Annan and filmmakers Nii Yemo Nunu and Steven Feld to chronicle Ghana's music since independence in 1957.

The marionettes perform ethnic songs, dances and stories, but equally the sounds of highlife, Afrojazz, Afro-rock, reggae, and contemporary hiplife. The innovative soundtrack includes historical documents from radio, TV and broadcast, and LP, as well as new compositions commissioned and performed to playback.

This fifth feature in the Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra series mixes styles of historical documentary and contemporary music video. In a review of the film in Visual Ethnography, Rina Sherman quotes ethnomusicologist and filmmaker Steven Feld:

"By doing what these guys have done, which is to give us an alternate history of music in Ghana, they're asking, 'Who tells the story of a nation's music? Is it just the elites and the universities or is it the artists in the streets who have lived these 50, 60 years of history since independence? ...this world of traditions ... is what it means to be a contemporary Ghanaian."

Through the pleasures of performance it reveals the cosmopolitan politics that intertwine ethnic, traditional, national, and global musical styles in Ghana today.

[J.C. Abbey]..."documents the extraordinary art and craft of Joseph C. Abbey... Abbey's remarkable work has remained largely unknown to the wider world and it is thanks to filmmakers Nii Yemo Nunu and feld, and their colleague Nii Noi Nortey, the multi-instrumentalist and administrator of the Anyaa Arts Library outside Accra, that we can now get an impression of Abbey's puppetry treasures."
—Markus Coester and Christine Matzke, University of Bayreuth (Germany)

Films in the Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra series:

Hallelujah! (60 min, 2009)

Accra Trane Station: The Music and Art of Nii Noi Nortey (60 min, 2009)

Includes the short film From Accra to Santa Fe (18 min, 2009)

A Por Por Funeral for Ashirifie (60 min, 2009)

The Story of Por-Por (60 min, 2013)

Includes the short film M.V. Labadi (20 min, 2013)

J.C. Abbey, Ghana's Puppeteer (55 min, 2016)

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The Story of Por Por

Tue, 9 Oct 2018 15:11:00 GMT

The Story of Por Por
Buy Now: $320.00

After electric horns arrived in West Africa, honk horns virtually disappeared. But a union of bus and truck drivers in the Accra township of La kept the por por horns and invented a jazzy honking music adding bells, drums, and voices. The La drivers only perform this Por Por at funerals of their fellow union transport workers.

This film documents the origins and performance of this music and features the testimonies of twenty-five senior drivers and transport industry workers who are centrally involved in its history

EXTRA FEATURE: M.V. Ladabi (20 min, 2013)

The story of legendary La pioneer driver Ataa Anangbi Anangfio, presented through family photographs by his son, photographer Nii Yemo Nunu.

Films in the Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra series:

Hallelujah! (60 min, 2009)

Accra Trane Station: The Music and Art of Nii Noi Nortey (60 min, 2009)

Includes the short film From Accra to Santa Fe (18 min, 2009)

A Por Por Funeral for Ashirifie (60 min, 2009)

The Story of Por-Por (60 min, 2013)

Includes the short film M.V. Labadi (20 min, 2013)

J.C. Abbey, Ghana's Puppeteer (55 min, 2016)

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Kama Wosi

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Kama Wosi
Buy Now: $320.00

Traditional music of the Trobriand Islands is played on a variety of flutes, from simple curving stems to panpipes. Songs (wosi) are also an important part of Trobriand music, and although everyone may compose and sing, people with special talents are encouraged to develop their skills. A range of songs are filmed and translated here: gardening and sailing songs, kula trading songs, songs of love and enticement, of grief and mourning. The film also reveals glimpses of everyday and ritual life: villages, gardens (and their magic), exchange, harvest dances, children in the rain.

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Passing Girl: Riverside

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 10:57:00 GMT

Passing Girl: Riverside
Buy Now: $295.00

At a street festival in West Africa, a young girl is delighted to discover a video camera trained on her. But her exuberant display is quickly cut short when she recognizes that the cameraman has already lost interest in her. But all is well: he has a document of the moment. Video has tipped the balance in another human interaction, and turned it into a curio.

This experimental video essay probes the complexities of video as a tool for cross-cultural research and representation: it examines, in effect, the politics of its own production. How does the intrusion of this expensive technology distort relationships? What are the ethnographic filmmaker's responsibilites towards his "subjects?"

Yet perhaps these concerns are themselves distortions, preoccupations that obscure a more balanced encounter, in which human accommodation can flow in both directions.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Bronze Apple Award, National Educational Media Network, 1998

Pacific Northwest Festival of Fictional and Anthropological Cinema, 1999

New York Exposition of Short Film and Video, Documentary Jury Award 1998

22nd Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, 1998

Royal Anthropological and Basil Wright Prize Screenings, 6th

International Festival of Ethnographic Film

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Accra Trane Station

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 13:30:00 GMT

Accra Trane Station
Buy Now: $320.00

This documentary distills three years of video conversations with Nii Noi Nortey, the Ghanaian sculptor, instrument inventor, and avant-garde instrumentalist. Nortey discusses the African legacy of John Coltrane, and how it inspired invention of his "afrifone" instruments, and a series of twenty Accra Trane Station sculptures and four CD recordings.

The recordings and film also feature his longtime percussionist Nii Otoo Annan, "the Elvin Jones of West Africa." Included are scenes of Nortey creating sculptures live at two Accra art exhibits, and performing with Accra Trane Station in recording studios and in concert in Ghana and the USA.

EXTRA FEATURE:From Accra To Santa Fe (18 min, 2009)
In August 2007 Nii Noi Nortey and Nii Otoo Annan traveled from Accra, Ghana to Santa Fe, New Mexico to perform and record with Steven Feld, and his musical colleagues Alex Coke and Jefferson Voorhees. This short features film clips from the sessions at 4th World Recording Studios to record the music for the CD Topographies of the Dark, featuring two collective compositions, Mood Duke, and Black Heat.

Films in the Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra series:

Hallelujah! (60 min, 2009)

Accra Trane Station: The Music and Art of Nii Noi Nortey (60 min, 2009)

Includes the short film From Accra to Santa Fe (18 min, 2009)

A Por Por Funeral for Ashirifie (60 min, 2009)

The Story of Por-Por (60 min, 2013)

Includes the short film M.V. Labadi (20 min, 2013)

J.C. Abbey, Ghana's Puppeteer (55 min, 2016)

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African Christianity Rising

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 13:30:00 GMT

African Christianity Rising
Buy Now: $320.00

Christianity's explosive growth in Africa was totally unexpected at the dawn of independence from colonial rule and is part of a startling reversal in world history. Christianity is no longer the religion of the West. Over two-thirds of the world's Christians now live in the global South — with Africa growing the fastest.

With guidance from leading scholars, these films document the vitality and changing nature of Christianity in Africa. They explore the ways in which it is has become increasingly popular by becoming increasingly African — that is, by becoming rooted more authentically in local cultures. In Ghana and Zimbabwe, where we did our principal filming, we saw that this means emphasizing healing, for instance, or dancing as spiritual discipline, or addressing the multiplicity of spirits that are part and parcel of the world most Africans know.

The films include the personal dramas of ordinary people wrestling with unmistakable, and at times gripping, human problems: a young Pentecostal woman struggling to overcome bitterness toward her mother, or a teenager wracked by poverty, depression and guilt, who has been persuaded by a traditional healer that hateful relatives have placed a curse on her life. Her Methodist pastor brings in the church's "prayer group" to pray against any spiritual powers that she, and they, suspect might be at work.

Such stories are illuminated by leading thinkers on the subject, like Archbishop Peter Sarpong of Ghana, a pioneer in introducing African cultures into Christian worship, and Kwame Bediako, one of Africa's leading theologians. Furthermore, filming characters on routine "missions" to North America points to the impact African Christianity is having in the West, at a time when African congregations are taking over old churches in Holland, Norway and Sweden, for example, and the ten largest churches in Britain are African.

The Complete Educational Edition includes 23 Educational Extras providing biographical sketches of key commentators, more detailed portraits of specific church communities, and the daily work of a traditional obosum priestess in Ghana competing for business with a prophet-founded church nearby.

Part One: Stories from Ghana (77 min, 2013)

Educational Extras: Ghana (126 min, 2013)

Part Two: Stories from Zimbabwe (74 min, 2013)

Educational Extras: Zimbabwe (99 min, 2013)

“The most penetrating and informative material I have ever seen on African Christianity, bringing out its vitality & variety without ever sensationalizing or exoticizing.”
— Terence Ranger, Professor of African History, Oxford

“Striking, powerful and clarifying. These films pack more information and present it more tellingly than would vast areas of print.”

—Andrew Walls, Founder, Centre for the Study of World Christianity, Univ. of Edinburgh, & The Journal of Religion in Africa

“Teaching how Africa’s world religions intersect with indigenous belief systems pose daunting pedagogical challenges, especially in the West. Ault’s impressive documentaries effectively challenge the sensationalism notoriously persistent even among intelligent lay learners . . . and are essential teaching tools in African studies.”
—Olufemi Vaughan, Professor Africana Studies, Bowdoin College

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